Types of Family
by NerdofSpades
Summary: Danny finds he has some things to say to Superman. And, by the Ancients, he's going to say them.


**This is technically a sequel to Powers, but can probably be read as a stand alone story. At most Powers explains some of the preexisting relationships. I will admit, I had no plans for this, but, within a few hours of posting Powers, it popped into my head and refused to leave.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-NoS**

* * *

Danny laughed, taking another sip from his can of soda. The Team was nice to hang around. It had started with him meeting up with Canary to train and then turned into him hanging out with them and Dick every once in a while, when they were all free. Then it had turned into Canary and "Robin" realizing that Danny was absolutely horrible at hand to hand combat when he was stuck on the ground and even when he was in the air he lacked any kind of formal discipline to his form. They could tell in about three seconds that he had learned on the job. That lead to Canary and the others dragging him into more training sessions because they were not going to leave him unprepared.

It took a little while to get used to being around other superpowered teens and relax, and it took even longer to get used to calling Dick Robin, and even when he wasn't slipping up, it always felt and sounded stilted coming out of his mouth. Which of course the other members of the Team had noticed and inevitably asked if Danny knew Dick from civilian life. Danny had responded with an "of course I do, but I'm still not going to tell you anything. That's his to keep or share as he wants to." Artemis had been more than a little disappointed, and Robin had teased her relentlessly for the next couple of days.

"So, Danny," Wally said trying to get the subject off his disastrous (heavy on the dis) attempts to woo M'gann at the Tower of Fate. "Have you ever done anything like that?"

Danny stopped laughing and thought for a moment. "Probably," he said. "I've done a lot of stupid things. The biggest was probably trying to use the Fright Knight's sword to make a good haunted house. I really should have seen that mess coming but…" Danny shrugged.

"You can't just say that and not tell us what happened!" Artemis laughed.

Danny gave her a smile. "By taking the sword from its resting place I released the Fright Knight. His sword did absolutely nothing to help me make the room spookier and he came after me to get his sword back, warping reality in Amity Park as he went. I only barely managed to trap him again with the help of my friends."

The room went silent. "Yeah…" Wally said, "definitely not the brightest moment."

Danny shrugged. "I never said it was. But, yeah, I've done a lot of stupid things."

"Why would you-"

"I was learning on my own," Danny said, cutting off Kaldur. "I had no point of reference for… anything. So, yeah, I made a lot of really dumb mistakes that probably look even worse to you guys, but I didn't have anyone to tell me it was a bad idea or the experience to know it firsthand. But, hey, everyone lived, so I think I'm doing alright."

"So, you learned to control your powers on your own, too?" Superboy asked.

Robin nodded. "Danny learned pretty much everything on the job. His powers, how to fight, what's smart and what's not. It wasn't until he found a connection to the League and a specific person to help him with a specific problem that he started getting any training." Robin paused. "I guess he's a bit more like you than I'd thought on that front."

"Wait, what?" Danny frowned and glanced at the others. They all looked like they understood what was going on, and, judging by the sour looks on their faces, they didn't like thinking about it. "Don't you have Superman to teach you?"

Superboy's face twitch and his fists clenched. "No," he said, his voice going flat with rage peeking through the cracks. "Superman… doesn't talk to me much."

"Recognized. Superman, 0-1."

Danny's frown only deepened. "Why? I mean, he's your dad, right?"

Superboy snorted. "That's true, technically speaking."

"Uh, Superboy…" Robin said carefully, glancing between the two. "He's Superman's clone. We found him in an underground lab."

"Quite literally," Wally said, adding his humor to try and lighten the mood. "Superman didn't even know he existed until then."

"And he's barely said more than four consecutive sentences to me since," Superboy growled.

The Team didn't notice the dark look on Danny's face until he spoke again. "He's talking with Batman right now, right? In the mission room?" His voice was perfectly level even as he ground his teeth.

"Yeah, probably," Robin said.

"Danny," Kaldur spoke up, "whatever you are thinking, I must advise you not to-"

"I don't care, Kaldur," Danny interrupted. "This is completely unacceptable. I won't sit back and just let it happen. At least, not without putting my two cents in."

Superboy looked surprised and relaxed significantly when he heard Danny say that. "You don't have to," he said. "No one's made any progress on him. Not even Batman and Canary."

Danny paused for a moment, looking at Superboy, then shook his head. "I need to do this. I can't just ignore it." He turned and stalked from the room, Dick hot on his heels.

"Danny, you really don't need to-"

"Yes, I do. Don't try and stop me."

Dick felt the air drop several degrees and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, every instinct telling him to run. "Danny, you're doing that thing again."

"Good."

Dick blinked at Danny. Normally Danny tried his hardest not to let his ghostly aura show like this, even when he was angry. For him to be glad it was affecting someone… he must be really pissed. He quickly slipped more firmly into the Robin persona and slid along the walls in the shadows as Danny went straight up to Superman and Batman.

Batman narrowed his eyes at the angry teenager. "Danny," he said, "your aura is-"

"I know, and right now, I don't care." Danny didn't take his eyes off Superman.

"Um," Superman said awkwardly, "can I help you with something?"

"Not me," Danny snorted, "but there's a few things you can help Superboy with."

Superman immediately tensed. "That boy-"

"Is kryptonian. He shares your DNA. You are literally the only other kryptonian on this planet. You are the only link he has to his heritage. The only person he should have to rely on to learn how to control his powers or what earth is like. Instead he doesn't even have the option of turning to you, and he has to rely on other people whose understanding of what he's going through is severely limited!"

"I am not responsible for him! He is not my son!"

"Son, brother, cousin, clone, what does it matter!? You're his family, or at least you should be! But you decided your discomfort was more important than his emotional wellbeing!"

"You have no right to lecture-"

Danny laughed. It was cold and harsh and absolutely terrifying as Danny gripped his stomach, head tipping back, and eyes burning a vibrant green. The cold swept through the room as Danny's aura flared around him. "I don't have the right to lecture you?" Danny's voice was beginning to echo. Robin gulped and pressed further against the wall while Batman and Superman only barely resisted the urge to back away. "A fourteen-year-old should not be reacting to this better than a grown adult! Than _the_ fucking Superman!"

"You were cloned," Batman said, eyes widening in surprise. That wasn't something he'd ever mentioned before.

"Do not tell me I don't understand what you're going through. Do not tell me I don't get to judge you. You are an adult. You have all the resources you need to teach him and take care of him, but you still turned your back on him because you were uncomfortable. I don't have any of that and I would gladly give her everything."

"Her?"

"He was made by my enemies using stolen genetic material!"

"So was she! It doesn't matter! He isn't his creators! He's his own choices and decisions. And he chose you! He chose the Team and the League!"

Superman gaped at him.

"Phantom, stop."

Danny whipped around to face Batman, a snarl still etched on his face. "What."

"You made your point, and far better than the rest of us could have. Superman has to do the rest himself."

Danny took a breath and his ghostly aura receded. "I'm not done quite yet," his voice was calm now. Too calm. He turned back to Superman. "It would be one thing if he had chosen to avoid you himself. It would be completely different if he had decided you weren't family. But he wanted to be your family. He already wanted desperately to see you as someone he could relate to and trust. And you turned your back on him." Danny's voice had been almost gentle and reasonable before it suddenly took a hard edge again. "Now, I'm done."

"Now, what's this about you being cloned?"

Danny winced. "There's not much to say about it."

Robin pulled himself off the wall and walked up to the group. "Not much to say? Danny, she's my family, too."

Danny nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line. "And if I had an easy way of contacting here, you'd have met her by now. But I don't, and I had more pressing things to worry about the last time I saw her. I didn't know where you were yet, so you didn't even come up. The next time I see her, I am going to try and talk her into coming to meet you."

"You don't-" Superman started, trying to find some ground to defend himself on.

"She likes to travel," Danny said with a shrug. "And she knows how to look after herself and that she can come to me when she needs help, so I saw no reason to stop her."

"Again, she?" Batman asked.

Danny hesitated. "Let's just say I'm not easy to clone. Things happened."

"How stable is she?" Robin asked. Danny gave him a surprised look that Robin misinterpreted as confusion. "Superboy wasn't the first attempt. His older brother, Match, isn't mentally stable. He's mostly just anger and instinct."

"Ah," he said, understanding. "She's stable. Physically and mentally." he winced slightly as he remembered that she hadn't always been stable, stable enough, rather. Now, she was. Now, he didn't have to worry about her over exerting herself or Vlad trying to melt her down again.

"I doubt she was the first attempt either," Batman said.

Danny sighed and shook his head.

"What happened to the others?" Superman asked.

Danny hesitated. "They didn't make it," he said. "She almost didn't either."

"What's her name?" Dick asked.

Danny smiled at him. "Danielle, or Dani- with an I- for short. Her creator wasn't exactly being creative when he named her. We generally say we're cousins." He snorted. "That's actually how she introduced herself to me before I knew what was going on."

Robin and Batman traded glances and Superman looked mildly uncomfortable now that he'd had time to process the fact that he'd just received a very thorough tongue lashing from a teenager. Danny decided to cut off the conversation there. "That's about all I'm comfortable saying about her story without her here. So, yeah. Now, you know."

"Danny…"

Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure she'll want to meet you, Dick. You can ask her more questions personally."

Batman placed a hand on Dick's shoulder. "I look forward to meeting her." Dick sighed and nodded. Danny grinned at them.

"Alright then," Danny said. "Now that I've said my piece and you've got your questions out of the way, how about we return to the others?"

Robin nodded, and the pair left the room, chatting peacefully.

"Just think about it," Batman said to Superman once the boys were gone.

Superman nodded and shifted uncertainly on his feet. "Well," he said, "I'd already gotten out everything I needed to say, so… I'll see you around?"

Batman nodded and turned to the holoscreen, returning to the logistics of the Team's next mission he was planning. Superman quickly left the cave. He really did have a lot to think about, and he'd rather make his escape with his dignity intact.

"Your name is Dick?"

Robin groaned. "Right, super hearing."

"Really?" Rocket said, holding back laughter.

Robin sighed and nodded. Sheepishly sending a discreet glance over at Artemis. She was frozen, her mouth open, as she stared wide eyed at Robin.

Then, she moved. "You little troll!" she yelled. "'We'll laugh about this someday!'"

Dick cackled and took his seat on the couch. "Well, I certainly am!"

Danny just shrugged his shoulders and accepted the new development.


End file.
